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Wide reciever Rashard Higgens leaps for the end zone in the first quarter of Saturday's game against Air Force in Hughes Stadium.

Colorado State players lift up the AFROTC DET. 90 trophy after defeating Air Force on Saturday at Hughes Stadium. / Hunter Thompson/For the Coloradoan

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CSU football fans can finally celebrate; the Rams are bowl eligible.

Garrett Grayson passed for 395 yards and three touchdowns while rushing for another, leading Colorado State University to a 58-13 victory over Air Force on Saturday at Hughes Stadium.

The victory improved the Rams’ record to 7-6, making them eligible for the postseason for the first time since 2008 and snapping a seven-game losing streak to Air Force.

It was the largest margin of victory in the rivalry series for CSU, which had been previously set with a 47-10 victory in 1975.

From the opening kickoff, CSU was in control of the Falcons. The Rams scored on their opening possession — a three-yard touchdown run by Kapri Bibbs — before holding Air Force to a three-and-out. CSU scored again on its second drive as Bibbs found the end zone on a one-yard burst.

Bibbs, who wasn’t expected to play Saturday with an injured right foot, finished the game with 16 carries for 79 yards and three touchdowns. The performance set an NCAA record for most games in a season (seven) with at least three rushing touchdowns. He also leads the nation with 28 rushing scores on the year.

Bibbs was able to find the end zone often, but the key to CSU’s offense was its air attack.

Grayson, a junior, completed 26 of 34 attempts and set a school record for passing yards in a season when he connected with Jordon Vaden for a 49-yard scoring strike in the third quarter. He finishes the regular season with 3,327 yards, breaking the previous mark of 3,319 set by Terry Nugent in 1983.

“I didn’t even know I was close (to the record), to be honest with you. It’s cool, it’s a huge honor, but it really comes to the guys up front. It makes my job easier, like I’ve said all season,” Grayson said. “We haven’t had the Ram-Falcon Trophy in seven years, so we wanted to go out and score as many points as we could. That’s our goal every week, but that was huge for us to get that confidence and realize we could put up those points and do it consistently.”

And while the offense was clicking on all cylinders for CSU (7-6, 5-3 MW), a short-handed defense stepped up, shutting down a triple-option attack for the first time this year. Starting linebacker Cory James missed the game and Aaron Davis was listed as questionable prior to kickoff, though he finished with eight tackles.

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Air Force (2-10, 0-8) was limited to 279 yards of total offense and 154 on the ground. For a CSU defense that had seemingly always struggled to slow down opponents that run similar styles of offense, Saturday was a big step forward for the Rams — pitching a shutout with their starters.

The Falcons didn’t score their first points until there were 5 minutes, 2 seconds remaining in the game, capitalizing on a 13-yard run by Colton Huntsman.

“I was expecting it to be a 3-, 7-point game — something like that — then to come out and (play) as well as we did, it was a pretty good feeling and show that great week of practice we had really paid off,” CSU senior linebacker Shaquil Barrett said. “We came out there to try to not let them gain any rushing yards.

“I’ve known that as my last year, I wanted to go to a bowl and that was going to be on my mind. We came out here as a team and took care of business.”

Bernard Blake led the Rams with 12 tackles and 1½ for loss. The Rams forced two fumbles as a team.

The seventh win of the year makes CSU bowl eligible; however, that doesn’t guarantee a berth. The Mountain West has six bowl partnerships this year, but seven schools are eligible for the postseason: Fresno State, Utah State, Boise State, San Diego State, CSU, UNLV and San Jose State.

CSU is likely safe and can earn an invitation to the New Mexico Bowl or Famous Idaho Potato Bowl but will have to wait hear the team’s fate. But with seven victories — three on the road — and a game at the No. 1 team in the nation, Alabama, coach Jim McElwain thinks the Rams deserve to send their seniors out on a positive note.

“I just know our guys went down to the No. 1 team in the country and played them. Our guys have battled, dominated some opponents, and we have a pretty good football team, a lot of people would like to say,” McElwain said. “You know, we’ll see what happens.”

Bowl invitations won’t be extended until after the Mountain West championship game Dec. 7.